After reading Hargrave's post about lighter recoiling .45 Colt loads, I thought it might be interesting to cut the original powder charge in half (40 grs to 20 grs.) and seat a 200 gr. down on top of the powder charge, compressing the powder.
That is a cartridge version of a b.p. load in early revolvers. Interestingly, it closely replicates D.D.'s recommendation of 1.3cc of b.p. in Cowboy 45 Special brass with the J/P 45 200 grain Big Lube®LLC bullet except it is in standard .45 Colt brass.
I ventured out yesterday to see how it would perform in a 7 1/2" barrel.
The powder was KIK FFFG, 20 grs by weight. Compression was .15".
Surprisingly, the average velocity was 778 f.p.s. (!) That's moving right along!
20 grs by weight of Olde Enysford FFG or Swiss FFG would give similar ballistics. 20 grs. by weight of FFFG of either of those powders would likely push the 200 gr. bullet to 800+ f.p.s.
Accuracy was very good as well. I left the mouth of the cartridges as they were after they were expanded and they still easily slipped into the chambers. As a result, there was very little blow back on the cases which were not annealed nor neck sized.
Fun, Fun, Fun!
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